Generally, system management software tools provide the capability of managing multiple network devices (“managed devices”). In some system management architectures, a user, such as a system administrator, accesses an agent executing on any of a number of respective managed devices through a central management server. Hence, the administrator manages the managed devices via the management server.
The management server provides not only a path through which an administrator can monitor and manage a given managed device, but may also provide related services, such as user and device authentication and authorization, including communication key exchanges. The management server typically communicates with an agent on behalf of a user working from a remote console. The agents that execute on managed devices perform management operations based on commands from the server and provide detailed information to the server about respective managed devices.
In a large enterprise environment, it is common for the management server and the managed devices to have multiple network interfaces. Each interface typically has a unique network address, such as an IP address, and therefore such machines are sometimes referred to as multi-IP machines. Furthermore, an environment configured in this manner is sometimes referred to as a multi-IP environment.
It is often desirable for the management server to manage all devices that are connected to the server, no matter through which server interface the devices are connected. In addition, it is often desirable for the management server to be configurable to selectively manage only a certain portion of all of the connected devices. For example, in an environment in which the management server is connected to a public network such as the Internet and to multiple private networks, the server is expected to only manage the devices connected to the private networks.
The term “server context” is used to describe a group of devices, or agents executing on the devices, that share a single instance of a management server, as defined by an event destination of the agents, which is associated with one of the given server's interfaces. Typically, an event destination is uniquely identified by the network address and port of event services running on a management server. With past approaches, a single network address and port is identified as the event destination. Thus, with past approaches to multi-IP system management environments, the management server only recognizes agents that are sending traps or event identifiers to the server's “primary” interface or address, as being within the server's server context. As such, the server can only manage the devices connected to and communicating through a network interface that is specified, published or broadcast as the server's primary interface, unless a communication bridge is present between the primary interface and other secondary interfaces to which devices may be connected.
However, if a communication bridge is built between the primary interface and a secondary interface, the respective subnets of devices that are connected to the server through the primary and secondary interfaces are not secured with respect to each other. For example, if the primary management interface on the server is connected to a private network and a secondary interface on the server is connected to a public network, and there is a communication bridge between the primary and secondary interfaces, the private network could perhaps be compromised via the public network if sufficient security mechanisms are not employed. Thus, the current approach to managing multiple subnets of devices through a central multi-IP management server leaves much to be desired.